Distribution of computer skills: only 5% of people can be called “advanced users”

Where is the "Internet" button?

Computers, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices are ubiquitous. Such gadgets can be found even in the most remote regions. Unfortunately, few people can use computers in the way that was intended by developers. And this is despite the fact that working with equipment and its software is now much easier than before.

Industrial designers and engineers create ergonomic devices with a minimum of controls. Programmers and designers are developing new interfaces, change and simplify the design of operating systems and software. But there are still few people who can be called advanced users of computer technology. The same applies to Internet users - most use the network only to view messages on the social network, and for nothing else. In order to find out the level of computer systems and software in the population of OECD countries , a special study was conducted. His results are summarized in this article.

The work was carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Researchers collected data in 33 countries from 2011 to 2015. The sample was really large, so the processing and analysis of the results took a fair amount of time.
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The target group of the study is people aged 16 to 65 years. If you take and users over 65 years old, then the total percentage of advanced users will be even less . The work mainly studied the abilities of people who are related to the performance of work duties. For this assessment, 14 tasks were selected, checking whether PC users can cope with them. Some tasks (visiting and navigating sites) were emulated using specialized software. Since the tasks were standardized, the researchers were able to verify that the research participants had equal opportunities, including the technical conditions of work (interface, computer equipment, etc.).

The tasks offered to users ranged from the most simple to relatively complex. One of the simple tasks is the “reply all” function to send an email response to three users. This is simple, because to perform a task you need to perform a very limited number of actions, but, as we know, even this simple task often causes difficulties in real life.

One of the challenges is planning a virtual meeting in a specialized application, using the information contained in several e-mail messages. The researchers called this task difficult because some actions for its implementation are implicit, there are many intermediate steps and actions. It is necessary to select information from different applications, then the obtained data should be properly used, being able to work with virtual conferences.

In principle, for most readers of Geektimes, all this seems to be probably ridiculous - after all, what kind of "difficult" task this is - organizing a meeting on the network. But, in fact, for the untrained user is not easy.

The researchers, summing up the work , divided the degree of users' possession of computer equipment and software into three levels. The first level is the minimum proficiency, the ability to solve basic tasks. The latter is the ability to easily cope with the most difficult and relatively routine tasks that need to be performed for work.

Below Level 1 - 14% of Adult Users

In general, here we are talking about the almost complete lack of skills in working with computers (this level is still above zero). Such people are still there, and, as we see, there are many of them. Such users sometimes see a computer, but they cannot cope with a problem that is more complicated than deleting a file or sending an e-mail.

Level 1 - 29% of adult users

Here are more advanced users. They can use a browser or email client to perform any tasks at work. The implementation of such tasks usually requires a minimum number of steps and intermediate steps. For example, users of this type can respond to emails, search for email messages or information they need on the network.

A typical task with which they will cope without any problems is “Find all the emails from Ivan Ivanovich”.

Level 2 - 26% of adult users

At this level, performing tasks requires both experience and specific knowledge, while simultaneously understanding the task itself. For example, a user can cope with filling out a complex online form that requires page-by-page navigation and work with applications. Using third-party tools is also necessary. There are already much more intermediate stages than in previous cases. However, it is necessary to look after users of this type so that they do not make any technical errors that will be difficult to fix.

A typical task that users of this level can handle is, for example, searching for a document of a specific subject sent to Ivan Ivanovich last September.

Level 3 - 5% of adult users

But this level is already related to users who can do a lot, using a large variety of tools to solve their problems. Their work tasks may consist of a large number of intermediate steps, some of which may be implicit, requiring specific knowledge, skills and experience.

If we take as an example all the same letters to Ivan Ivanovich, then we are talking about the possibility of counting the percentage of e-mail sent to a specific subject to a specific recipient, and this is the simplest task that such users can handle.

Why is the sum of all these percentages not 100%? The fact is that almost a third of adults do not know how to use a computer. Basically, we are talking about people from remote regions or countries with significant economic problems, where computer equipment is simply not available. But this does not change the meaning of what has been said: almost a third of people do not know how to use digital equipment and software.

If you take a breakdown by country, the situation will be as follows.



In general, experts say that in any country, 5-8% of technically advanced users, this figure varies very little from country to country (if we evaluate the economically developed countries). Needless to say, this percentage is very small. Perhaps we can say that approximately 95% of people in any country are not technically advanced users. Many of them are able to perform relatively simple tasks, more than a third cannot do anything at all. And it is in vain, because in some cases, computer literacy helps preserve mental abilities in old age.